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THE LEHIGH UNIVERSITY 

ASA PACKER, FOUNDER. 



EXERCISES AT THE CELEBRATION 



OF THE 



FOUNDER'S-DAY 



THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1881, 



WITH THE 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS 



BY THE 



HON. SAMUEL J. RANDALL, 

OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



«**» 



THE LEHIGH UNIVERSITY 

»/ 
ASA PACKER, FOUNDER. 



EXERCISES AT THE CELEBRATION 



OF THE 



FOUNDER'S-DAY 



THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1881, 



WITH THE 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS 



BY THE 



HON. SAMUEL J. RANDALL, 

OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



READING, PA.: 
Press of B. F. Owen, 515, 517 Court Street, 

1881. 



1 



The Hon. Asa Packer, of Mauch Chunk, appropriated during his life 
nearly one million of dollars for the purpose of founding an institution of 
learning. To the end that it might be open to all, he declared the instruction 
to be forever Free. It was named by him " The Lehigh University," 
and was incorporated by the Legislature of Pennsylvania in 1866. 

After his death, which occurred on the 17th of May, 1879, ^ was found 
that he had bequeathed to it by his will the sum of two millions of dollars. 
Of this most generous bequest, a million and a half were to be applied to the 
general endowment of the University ; and half a million to establish and 
maintain a Library, the beautiful edifice for which he had caused to be 
erected during his life, and had dedicated as a memorial to his daughter, 
Mrs. Lucy Packer Linderman. 

Such munificence claims a lasting remembrance. As tending to this pur- 
pose it was resolved that the second Thursday in October of every year 
should be observed in his honor, with appropriate exercises, as Founder's - 
Day. The first celebration took place the ninth of October, 1879. 






EXERCISES. 



At eleven o'clock A. M. on the thirteenth day of 
October, 1881, the Trustees, Faculty, Alumni, Students 
and invited guests, with the Hon. Samuel J. Randall, 
of Pennsylvania, who had accepted the invitation to 
deliver the address, met at the University Memorial 
Library, and in procession went to the Drawing-Room 
of Packer Hall. 

A Scripture lesson was read and prayers were said 
by the Rev. Frederic M. Bird, Chaplain of the Uni- 
versity. 

President Lamberton then introduced to the large 
audience Mr. Randall, who was received with great 
applause and who delivered the Memorial Address. 

The music was by Hassler's Orchestra. 

In the afternoon the Annual Sports of the Univers- 
ity Athletic Association were held in the Association 
grounds. 

At a meeting of the Trustees in the afternoon, a 
resolution of thanks to Mr. Randall for his admira- 
ble address was unanimously adopted, and he Avas 
earnestly requested to furnish it for printing and 
preservation. 



MEMORIAL SERVICE. 



MUSIC. 

SCRIPTURE LESSON. 

Ecclesiasticus XL IV. to v. 16. 

i. Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us. 

2. The Lord hath wrought great glory by them, through His 
great power from the beginning. 

3. Such as did bear rule in their kingdoms, men renowned for 
their power, giving counsel by their understanding, and declaring 
prophecies ; 

4. Leaders of the people by their counsels, and by their knowl- 
edge of learning meet for the people, wise and eloquent in their 
instructions ; 

5. Such as found out musical tunes, and recited verses in 
writing ; 

6. Rich men furnished with ability, living peaceably in their 
habitations ; 

7. All these were honored in their generations, and were the 
glory of their times. 

8. There be of them that have left a name behind them, that 
their praises might be reported. 

9. (And some there be which have no memorial ; who are per- 
ished as though they had never been born, and their children after 
them.) 

10. But these were merciful men, whose righteousness hath not 
been forgotten. 

11. With their seed shall continually remain a good inheritance, 
and their children are within the Covenant. 



i2. Their seed standeth fast and their children for their sakes. 

13. Their seed shall remain for ever, and their glory shall not 
be blotted out. 

14. Their bodies are buried in peace; but their name liveth for 
evermore. 

15. The people will tell of their wisdom, and the Congregation 
will show forth their praise. 

The Lord be with you. 
And with thy spirit. 

PRAYERS. 

Our Father, who art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy 
kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, As it is in heaven. 
Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, 
As we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into 
temptation ; But deliver us from evil : For Thine is the kingdom, 
and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen. 

O Lord, we glorify Thee in Thy Servant, our illustrious Bene- 
factor, now departed out of this life, who through zeal for God's 
glory, and earnest desire for the good of His children, founded and 
endowed this University ; beseeching Thee, that as he for his time 
bestowed charitably the good things which Thou didst give him, 
so we for our time, may use the same, to the benefit of mankind, 
and to the setting forth of Thy Holy Name and Word ; and 
finally that we together with him, may remain with Thee in glory, 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Almighty God, the Fountain of all wisdom, we ask Thy guidance 
and blessing for all on whom rests the duty of directing the affairs 
of this University. Give to its Trustees the fidelity and wisdom 
and earnestness, which so great a work demands, that they may 
execute their office duly, to the honor of God and the benefit of 
men. Give to its Instructors of every rank, diligence to acquire, 
and skill to impart, useful knowledge — and power of influence to 
awaken the young men committed to their care, to a just sense of 
the value of sound learning, and an eager use of their faculties, 
in its pursuit. Replenish all with the wisdom that cometh from 
above, that they may receive the crown of everlasting life, through 
the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 



O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom every 
family in Heaven and Earth is named, we humbly beseech Thee to 
take into Thy special protection, the past students of this Univers- 
ity ; preserve their bodies in health, their minds in vigor and 
their persons in safety, for the discharge of their several duties. 
Cheer them by the comfort of Thy constant Presence ; let brotherly 
love continue among them ; apd help them so to follow Thy blessed 
Saints in all virtuous and godly living, that they may come to those 
unspeakable joys which Thou hast prepared for all who love and 
fear Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

We beseech Thee, O Lord, to bless the going out and coming 
in of the dwellers in this College ; to keep them in purity and 
health ; to send Thy holy Angels to be their defence ; to drive 
away darkness ; to grant them Thy light ; to give them diligence 
and understanding ; to bless them in all they do ; to enrich them 
with all the works of faith and charity ; and to compass them with 
Thy loving favor as with a shield, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
Amen. 

The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Love of God, and 
the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with us all evermore. Amen. 



ADDRESS. 



It is a pious and praiseworthy custom which you 
have established, of setting apart one day in the year 
to keep green the memory of a man whose life was 
full of usefulness and profit to all about him. Grati- 
tude at least would prompt the constant and loving 
remembrance of a public benefactor as munificent as 
Asa Packer, and yet whose munificence, extraordinary 
as it was, is no greater than the wisdom of its bestowal. 
And if there were no higher motive than our own indi- 
vidual gain, there is a lesson to be learned in the study 
of a career so illustrious, — wrought out as it was by 
dint of native force and energy, amenable always to 
the rigid rule of personal integrity, swayed by a deep 
sense of public duty, and softened and beautified by a 
sincere love of humanity. And now at this third re- 
currence of Pounder's-Day, I am here by your kind 
partiality to give utterance to some thoughts which 
rise naturally out of the occasion. 

Who was Asa Packer ? I doubt whether there is a 
single person in this presence who does not recall in- 
stantly all the well-known incidents of his history. His 
name and fame are household words, not only in the 
Lehigh Valley, but in every part of the Keystone 
State, which he loved so well. He was of those happy 



IO 

mortals who had the rare fortune, while gaining vast 
personal wealth, of seeing it, by the enterprising works 
of public improvement which he brought to successful 
conclusion, the measure of larger prosperity to the 
people among whom he lived and flourished, so that 
their well-being, from the grand results he attained, 
seemed to be the sole object of all his exertions. 

There is a daily beauty in these modest lives, and in 
a practical age they are more regarded. In my judg- 
ment such appreciation is a strong evidence of a whole- 
some public opinion. We know in the past, that his- 
tory has been little more than a catalogue of those 
whose deeds reeked with human gore and who sym- 
bolized the destruction of nations and the extinction of 
the accumulated labor of ages. In these milder and 
better days, when the world grows more neighborly as 
electricity and steam bring the ends of the earth into 
closest acquaintanceship, we find exalted above all 
others those who do good and not evil in their day 
and generation ; the builders of States, and not those 
who waste the fair habitations of men ; the men, in a 
word, who nearest approach their Divine exemplar by 
good works, and not those in whose path come woe 
and tears and indescribable misery. 

Every noteworthy fact of Asa Packer's busy and 
eventful life has been already placed of record in the 
archives of Lehigh University, and yet there are some 
salient points which we can never lose sight of or fail 
to recall when his name is in question. Starting out 
with the most meagre possibilities, he nevertheless won 
his way to the highest rank in society and amassed 
wealth beyond the dream almost of Avarice itself. 
In what manner was this end reached, and when the 



II 

potent power of gold was entrusted to his hands, how 
did he use it? Did the same calm, quiet, resolute, 
brave, sure judgment that carved out his splendid 
fortune remain with him when it had all been per- 
fected ? Was his brilliantly successful career made 
still more brilliant by the noble objects he sought? 
But let us not anticipate. 

Asa Packer was born December 29, 1805, in New 
London County, Connecticut. ) The famous Junius, in 
his Letter to the King, wrote of the early American 
settlers, 

" They left their native land in search of freedom and found it 
in a desert." 

So, too, Asa Packer, one of their descendants, in 
the exercise of that liberty they had won, left his 
native State while yet in his teens, with a light purse 
and the scantiest outfit, to find a home and competence. 
He found them both in Eastern Pennsylvania. He 
came to us as young in years and in as great poverty 
as Franklin or Girard, but he brought, as they did, 
habits of industry, perseverance, and courage ; and 
like them, he wrote his name imperishably in the annals 
of Pennsylvania. 

f A tall, wiry, blue-eyed youth of eighteen years of 
age, of unshaken faith and unconquerable will, he lo- 
cated in the then wilderness of Susquehanna County. 
His capital was his muscle, willing spirit and clear 
common-sense, and before him was the fertile soil 
which never denies ample harvest to the earnest 
worker. He was vigorous, steady and patient, and 
in time came his reward. 

In Brooklyn Township he learned the trade of car- 
penter and joiner. He labored sedulously at it for 



I 2 

more than a decade. He was acquiring one of the 
elements of success required to accomplish the hercu- 
lean task which was to crown his days. His own 
hands cleared the piece of land where he had located 
upon the upper waters of the Susquehanna, and soon 
he had constructed a log house and surrounded it with 
the frugal appliances of a frontier home. He was of 
them to whom the Scripture refers, 

" The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them ; 
and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." 

In this humble home he was blessed with the com- 
panionship of a true wife, who was in every sense a 
help-meet. 'We have been told she was the stay and 
pride of his heart till the world faded away from his 
eyes. 

Bacon has said children were well-springs of joy 
in a house, and also that they were hostages to 
fortune ; at all events Asa Packer learned in time 
that he required larger means to meet the increasing 
demands of a growing family. He wandered out of 
the isolated valley of the Susquehanna into the region 
of the Lehigh. It was the second step in his career. 
He had at last reached the true field of his labors. 

Somewhere about the year 1833, he came to Mauch 
Chunk and was employed in boating coal to Philadel- 
phia, acting as master of his own boat. He was en- 
gaged, with others, in mining coal, merchandising, and 
constructing dams and locks of massive proportions, 
on the upper navigable waters. He was working out 
the problem of quick and cheap transportation. It 
was gaining another element of his final success. 

I believe it is conceded that A. & R. W. Packer 
were the first through transporters of coal to the New 



York market. Asa Packer was then gathering the 
experience for larger and more remunerative efforts. 
He saw the new force that came to rule the world and 
at once appreciated the importance and necessity of 
employing steam to quicken and shorten transporta- 
tion and to increase and cheapen the cost of production. 

The Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna 
Railroad was incorporated by Act of Assembly of 
April 21, 1846. The first survey was made in 1850. 
The project was a grand one, but it seemingly died in 
its birth. If not absolutely dead and abandoned, the 
enterprise lived a sickly existence. Not until 1851, 
seventeen days before the charter would have expired, 
on the 4th of April, does the name of Asa Packer ap- 
pear as one of the Board of Managers. On that day 
the grading of a mile of railroad near Allentown was 
authorized and the limitation was thereby avoided. 
By a supplementary Act of Assembly of January 7th, 
1853, the name was changed to " The Lehigh Valley 
Railroad Company." Previously in 1851, Mr. Packer 
had become the owner of a controlling portion of the 
stock of the company. He submitted a proposition to 
build the road from Mauch Chunk to Easton, forty-six 
miles, for a consideration to be paid in stock and 
bonds. In plain words, he virtually undertook to 
build the work himself. His proposition was adopted, 
and that portion of the line was constructed between 
November 27, 1852, and September 24, 1855, when 
it was delivered complete to the company by Mr. 
Packer and accepted. 

If you will look at the map you will observe that 
the mouth of the Lehigh River is equidistant from the . 
great cities and markets of New York and Philadel- 



H 

phia. That way lay the commerce and riches of the 
world. It was a glorious prize to strive for. The 
Lehigh Valley Railroad was galvanized into new life, 
but its permanence was not yet assured. Connections 
had to be made north and east and west. In view of 
the stupendous difficulties in the way, a less persistent 
and energetic man would have relapsed into despair. 
Although steep, rugged, and almost impassable 
mountains barred the way, leaving scarce room far 
down in the depths for the swift-flowing Lehigh to 
wind its course to the Delaware, nevertheless the 
work went on. He lived to see it a marvel of suc- 
cess. It was not only a rail route to New York and 
Philadelphia, but by the extension of trunk lines it 
reached the Susquehanna Valley and the table-land of 
New York State, there tapping the New York and 
Erie and New York Central Railroads and the whole 
system of roads leading west and north. It was the 
great work of his life, to which he had devoted every 
faculty of his mind. It is one of which any man might 
be proud. It penetrates and surmounts the gigantic 
difficulties of what is not inaptly designated as the 
Switzerland of America. Hannibal and Napoleon 
scaled the lofty Alps with engines of war to slay and 
destroy. Asa Packer with engines of peace climbed 
the almost inaccessible mountain heights of the coal 
region of the Lehigh to build up and prosper. His 
was the nobler victory and is deserving of more 
praise, as blessings are better than curses. 

He struck the mountain-side, and from its inexhaust- 
ible mineral wealth came plenteously of coal and iron, 
which have gladdened almost every nook and corner 
with busy workshops, comfortable homes, intelligent 
communities and prosperous and beautiful cities. 



i5 

If there came to him wealth as the result of his in- 
dustry, skill and pluck, who will say that it was not 
richly deserved? It was the measure of the people's 
prosperity and not the symbol of their poverty and 
wretchedness. 

The completion of the railroad had the effect to 
bring into existence almost countless furnaces and fac- 
tories, which not only supplied employment and sub- 
sistence to thousands, but furnished for the railroad 
itself, and for the miners of coal and iron, their nearest 
and best markets, as it were at their very door. 

It is written that great wealth gotten by ill means is 
an eternal reproach, and so it is ; but in the order of 
Providence such wealth remains not long in the same 
hands, for the infamy which produces it at the same 
time engenders the corroding vices by which it is dissi- 
pated. Great wealth, however, when the gradual 
product of a long life of activity and struggle, is the 
source of unlimited happiness to its possessor. 

But rich or poor, Asa Packer pursued the even 
tenor of his way. He was the same modest, persistent 
and successful man. And how unlike some rich men 
of the present day. His was not the unwise or foolish 
wealth, which by ostentation invited envy or enmity. 
He was of the people and he never forgot it. His 
early struggles had subjected him to hard but profit- 
able discipline. He might have squandered his means 
upon useless things, but he did not. His life was a 
series of good deeds. 

Education easily gained, in ordinary schools of 
learning, uninterrupted by want or difficulty, does not 
always give us the practical wisdom found in a life 
such as Asa Packer's. Amid the strifes of men and 



r6 

near the heart of nature, we find the real and true 
alone command the confidence of the many. The 
demagogue may hide his falsehoods under disguises, 
but at last the piercing eye of the people will pene- 
trate them, and then his fall will be all the more by the 
unnatural height to which his pretence had elevated 
him. 

Asa Packer has perpetuated his name and fame by 
building upon the solid rock of practical common- 
sense. He established and endowed a stately Univers- 
ity where learning in the higher branches of knowledge 
is to be forever free. During the year 1865, he an- 
nounced to the Right Reverend William Bacon Stevens, 
Bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania, his intention to 
appropriate half a million dollars and an eligible wood- 
land park of about sixty acres, on the borders of South 
Bethlehem, to found an educational institution, in which 
he designed opportunity should be afforded to young 
men of limited means to acquire, beside liberal educa- 
tion, a knowledge of those branches of science which 
directly bear upon the industrial pursuits concerned in 
developing the natural resources of the country — in 
schools of civil, mechanical and manufacturing engi- 
neering, of chemistry, architecture and construction. 
The buildings were erected between 1866 and 1869. 
Mr. Packer, in his seventy-fourth year, died May 17, 
1879, and by his will bequeathed, in addition to the 
million in the aggregate already given, the sum of two 
million dollars to the purposes of the University. He 
modestly named it "The Lehigh University." 

Thomas Jefferson, the immortal author of the De- 
claration of Independence, asked to have inscribed on 
his gravestone, in addition to that authorship, the fur- 



17 

ther fact that he was the founder of the University ot 
Virginia. Laying the foundation of a free and inde- 
pendent government, and laying the foundation of a 
university for teaching higher branches of knowledge, 
were in his belief equally honorable and deserving of 
fame. The munificence of Asa Packer is a monition 
to you, for if with the poor means given to him he did 
so much, it is for you to see to it that with the funds 
so generously bestowed, this noble University shall 
rival in scholarship and science the greatest seats of 
learning of every age and nation. He has dwarfed 
others by the greatness of his gift ; let us hope in 
these schools you will excel every competitor in like 
degree. 

Shakspeare says in Henry VI. : 

" Ignorance is the curse of God, 
Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven." 

In our free country, which at the end of the 
present century will in all probability number a hun- 
dred million of inhabitants, stretching in width from 
ocean to ocean and in length from the frigid pole to 
the burning equator, blessed with boundless physical 
resources and daily becoming " the mightiest of the 
mighty," we can be sure our institutions are secure 
so long as education is general. It is the sheet-anchor 
of our government. Without its protection we shall 
fall into decay ; with it we shall hold our own. If in 
the race and competition with other nations, we shall 
dominate the markets of the world with our manu- 
factures and agricultural productions, we must keep 
abreast of every improvement in labor and cost-saving 
machinery. This can best be done by keeping up the 



i8 

supply of that high scientific education which is here 
provided, by the foresight of one man, forever free. 

When Asa Packer commanded his own canal-boat, 
while engaged in transporting coal and iron to Xew 
York and Philadelphia, he learned that time is the 
costliest element of production and transportation, 
and whether individual or people, man or nation, he 
who produces the cheapest and lays down quickest in 
the market, whether the product of the soil or the 
loom, the mine or the workshop, rules the market. It 
was this knowledge which nerved his energy to the 
construction of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. We all 
know the success which followed. Solomon found his 
way to the riches of India in the ancient days by the 
shortest route and enriched himself bevond all others. 
The trade of the world lies by the nearest, shortest 
and quickest route. The inventive and adventurous 
genius of our people has drawn it across the American 
Continent, and the Lehigh Valley Railroad is one ol 
the links in the areat chain of railroad connection. 

Mr. Packer saw, that if we would preserve our free- 
dom, maintain our high position as a race of workers, 
continue the prosperity which we now enjoy to our pos- 
terity, undiminished, and with increase in the future as in 
the past, it must be by the general and thorough edu- 
cation of our whole people. We have studied history 
and watched the events which have transpired in our 
own day. to small purpose, if we do not recognize the 
fact that there are serious dangers threatening the 
stability of our free government. There are differ- 
ences of race and religion, and variety in productions 
and industries, and consequent diversity of interests. 
Justice to each and all. and aid and comfort, where aid 



19 

and comfort will not work deadly injury to others, 
must be the rule, of course ; but in order that there 
may be perfect knowledge and harmonious action in 
reference to the varied interests of localities and States 
and sections, there must be banished from our midst 
every vestige of ignorance. The voters must be 
guarded against the wiles of the demagogue. They 
should be guarded as well against themselves by intel- 
lectual cultivation which strengthens the mind and im- 
proves the heart. Institutions like the Lehigh Uni- 
versity, therefore, which train up youth in the highest 
forms of knowledge, are of incalculable aid to good 
government. 

Let me now take a passing view of the University 
of Virginia, and in the line of my present reflections. 
On the 2 ist of February, 1 81 8, the General Assembly 
of Virginia passed a law, which provided : 

" There shall be established in some convenient and proper part 
of the State, a University, to be called ' The University of Vir- 
ginia,' wherein all the useful branches of science shall be taught. 
In order to aid the Legislature in ascertaining the permanent site 
of said University and in organizing it, there shall be appointed 
without delay, by the Executive of this Commonwealth, twenty- 
four discreet and intelligent persons, who shall constitute ' the 
Board of Commissioners for the University.' " 

One member of the Board was appointed from each 
Senatorial District. I have read the Report adopted 
by that Board at Rockfish Gap, on the Blue Ridge, 
in August, 1818, as it was drawn up by Thomas Jef- 
ferson. He there declares the objects of primary 
education to be 

"To give to every citizen the information he needs for the 
transaction of his own business ; 



20 

To enable him to calculate for himself, and to express and pre- 
serve his ideas, his contracts and accounts in writing ; 

To improve by reading his morals and his faculties : 

To understand his duties to his neighbors and his country, and 
to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by 
either ; 

To know his rights ; to exercise with order and justice those he 
retains ; to choose with discretion the fiduciary of those he dele- 
gates ; and to notice their conduct with diligence, with candor and 
judgment ; 

And in general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness all 
the social relations under which he shall be placed." 

Further on in the same report, he says that the 
higher branches of education are designed 

"To form the statesmen, legislators and judges, on whom pub- 
lic prosperity and individual happiness are so much to depend ; 

To expound the principles and structure of government, the 
laws which regulate the intercourse of nations, those formed 
municipally for our own government, and a sound spirit of legis- 
lation, which banishing all arbitrary and unnecessary restraint on 
individual action, shall leave us free to do whatever does not violate 
the equal rights of another ; 

To harmonize and promote the interests of agriculture, manu- 
facture and commerce and by well-informed views of political 
economy to give a free scope to the public industry ; 

To develop the reasoning faculties of our youth, enlarge their 
minds, cultivate their morals and instill into them the precepts of 
virtue and order ; 

To enlighten them with mathematical and physical sciences, 
which advance the arts and administer to the health, the sub- 
sistence, and comforts of human life ; 

And generally to form them to habits of reflection, and correct 
action, rendering them examples of virtue to others and of happi- 
ness within themselves." 

The objects of primary education are attained un- 
der the legislation of the several States by the Com- 



21 

mon Schools. If in addition the Lehigh University 
shall secure those other objects of higher education so 
graphically outlined by Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Packer will 
deserve a fame as lasting as the eternal hills. 

No doubt in his practical mind there often rose the 
thought that the scions of rich American families ought 
not to be sent abroad to obtain university education. 
He may have remembered the scathing sarcasm of 
John Randolph of Roanoke. In the days when the 
landed aristocracy of Virginia sent their first-born sons 
to the great universities of Europe, — those sons who 
under the then existing laws of primogeniture were to 
inherit, after the fashion of England, all of the real 
property of the family — he deplored the practice of 
sending young men to finish their education under 
monarchical institutions and amid the licentiousness of 
the times, who were to be leaders at home and to run 
their career under republican institutions. Of such 
young men he said in the Virginia House of Bur- 
gesses, " that they reminded him of the lands on the 
head-waters of the Monongahela River, which were 
poor by nature, and cultivation had entirely exhausted 
them." 

Here among our own people, associated with those 
who like themselves are to rule the Republic in the 
future, emulating each other in moral and intellectual 
advancement, is the place where our children should 
finish the education which is to fit them for the struggle 
of life, and not under influences which tend to weaken 
their love for the people and to diminish their devotion 
to the principles of the free government left to us by 
our patriotic fathers. And when the foremost nations 
of the civilized world are eagerly imitating the example 



22 

of republican America, how utterly obnoxious is all 
aping by our own citizens of the manners of a society 
and condition of affairs which are rapidly passing into 
oblivion. 

We have seen the poor boy Asa Packer gain wealth 
and position by industry, integrity, ability, and pluck, 
and how in the greatness of his power he wasted not 
his means in the vanities of the world, but devoted 
them largely to the welfare and happiness of the peo- 
ple forever. He was of the famous men spoken of in 
Ecclesiasticus : 

"Rich men furnished with ability, living peaceably in their 
habitations." 

And again : 

" There be of them that have left a name behind them that their 
praises might be reported." 

If the light of genius be given to any mind, it need 
not expire because of lack of sustenance ; for the 
Lehigh University freely offers the fuel wherewith to 
keep it alive. And may not some day go out from 
these classic halls one of the master minds, whose sur- 
passing mental power, equipped in these schools, shall 
command the allegiance of the world ? At all events 
the faithful children of this University may forget many 
things, but only with their own existence can they ever 
lose recognition of the love and veneration they owe 
to the memory of its Founder. 

He was unassuming and gentle, simple and frugal, 
and yet beneath his mild exterior there dwelt a 
courageous spirit which wrought out undertakings of 
gigantic size and moment and of incalculable influ- 



23 

ence for good. His Christianity was something more 
than profession. He loved God with his whole heart 
and his whole soul, and he loved his neighbor as him- 
self. If there was any specially marked characteristic, 
it was his love of humanity. 

Sylla, one of the bloodiest tyrants an avenging 
Providence ever let loose to chastise a wicked peo- 
ple, complacently claimed in his memoirs that his 
shining recommendation to posterity would be the fact 
he had never let an enemy go unpunished or a friend 
unrewarded. Is not Asa Packer's renown more genu- 
ine and stable in that he never surrendered himself 
to selfish indulgence or sought wild revenge, but 
quietly and persistently gave the energies of body and 
mind with which he was blessed to prosper himself 
and the people he lived amongst, by developing the 
material resources so lavishly spread on every hand 
about them, so that when it came his time to go, all 
the welkin was resonant with the busy hum of industry 
and the glad voices of thriving and happy households ? 



